Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2011 Apr 11;50(16):3620-9. doi: 10.1002/anie.201004470. Epub 2011 Feb 25.
Biological membranes comprise thousands of different lipids, differing in their alkyl chains, headgroups, and degree of saturation. It is estimated that 5% of the genes in the human genome are responsible for regulating the lipid composition of cell membranes. Conceivably, the functional explanation for this diversity is found, at least in part, in the propensity of lipids to segregate into distinct domains, which are important for cell function. X-ray diffraction has been used increasingly to characterize the packing and phase behavior of lipids in membranes. Crystalline domains have been studied in synthetic membranes using wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering, and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. Herein we summarize recent results obtained using the various X-ray methods, discuss the correlation between crystalline domains and liquid ordered domains studied with other techniques, and the relevance of crystalline domains to functional lipid domains in biological membranes.
生物膜包含数千种不同的脂质，其烷基链、头基和饱和度各不相同。据估计，人类基因组中的 5%的基因负责调节细胞膜的脂质组成。可以想象，这种多样性的功能解释至少部分是由于脂质倾向于分离成不同的域，这对于细胞功能很重要。X 射线衍射已越来越多地用于表征膜中脂质的堆积和相行为。已经使用广角和小角 X 射线散射以及掠入射 X 射线衍射研究了合成膜中的结晶域。在此，我们总结了使用各种 X 射线方法获得的最新结果，讨论了与其他技术研究的结晶域与液体有序域之间的相关性，以及结晶域与生物膜中功能性脂质域的相关性。
